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No, I understand that it's speed control. I'm just wondering how hard that would be for her. She has almost no real control of how hard she presses down with her foot. It's either stomp or nothing.

CP The early electrics that were mounted in cabinets had a lever around knee level and you pushed on it to control the speed. I'm sure with a little imagination you could mount a foot pedal and rig up a lever to do the same thing. The key would be making a longer motion with the lever move the pedal a shorter distance. This would give more control over the speed. It would be a matter of pivot points and length of the lever.

WOW! that's a lot of things to think about for buying a sewing machine. Thank you all kindly. I guess I'm going to have to let the cat out of the bag and get her involved.

She would be much happier if you do. Think of the weeks and weeks she will have fun doing research. I think researching a big purchase can be very entertaining. Reminds me when I was a kid looking through the toy ads close to Christmas! Life can be so simple when you are young.

....i don't really sew (learned to use a machine in jr high home ec.....once in a while i've done a quick thing or 2)...but my wife is an expert (did costumes for the hasty pudding at harvard for many years, won awards as a kid, made her own wedding dress, made wedding dresses for others). she has an older singer which does quite well...i have my mother's old kenmore (which i haven't used since it came here to live). my niece got a newer walmart singer last year, and it doesn't work all that well (even winding a bobbin requires constant attention/tweaking). i think there is something to be said for buying an older machine that is all metal, and having it serviced by someone who is good.

that said, i've seen the new pfaff's that do embroidering (and can import images from the computer)...i'm drooling. if your wife wants to do 'crafty things', but not make quilts or do really heavy duty sewing, this might be a good (though expensive) option...as at least she could do things like custom embroidery on towells, shirts, etc....and these things can run unattended!!!

Well folks, I'm off work for the afternoon to watch kids so that she and my mother and her best friend can go shopping for sewing machines. They even had a meeting last night and researched every store within sixty miles that has ever offered sewing machines...
I gave her cash to buy lunch and a hand full of trinkets and "borrowed" my credit card back from her for the day to minimize the damages.
Thanks all for your thoughts.

Between Iddee and Summer that's all the info and
expertise one could want.

You are correct. And the best advice from both of them is that it does not matter what I think. She will get what she wants and thinks she needs regardless of what I think would be best. She was rather irked that after five years of marriage I still thought I could pick out something as personal as a sewing machine.